Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the ANDRITZ Webcast regarding the publication of the results for the full year 2022. My name is Stefan Schantl, and I will moderate today's webcast. I would like to welcome President and CEO, Dr. Joachim Schönbeck , and CFO, Norbert Nettesheim , who will present the financial highlights of the full year 2022 today. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Now I would like to hand over to Mr. Schönbeck. Please go ahead, sir.
Stefan, thank you very much. Good morning from my side to all of you. First of all, I'd like to thank Stefan for the kind introduction, and would also like to introduce him to you as he will be or is the successor of Michael Buchbauer , who has served you for the, I would say, since the IPO very well. I would ask you to provide him the same comfort and trust that you have established with Michael. I can guarantee to you it's a change in the spirit of continuity, and you will receive the same service and guidance you usually got from Michael. Thank you very much, and all the best, all the best for you. Coming now to the year results.
I'm very, very happy that we could deliver really good results after this extremely challenging year that we had. I'm very proud how well the ANDRITZ team has managed all the difficulties we faced during the past year. It's not only that a war in Ukraine started, the sanctions took their part for us. We had supply chain disruptions. We still had the majority of the last year, we had COVID restrictions in China, a very important market for us to source from. Of course, we had the inflation which nobody had encountered in the beginning of the year. We are, however, we are extremely happy that we could do well. Let's move to the summary of the year.
We had, I would say record results in all major financial parameters. We posted a record order intake of EUR 9.3 billion. That's up 18% from last year. We had a group revenue of EUR 7.5 billion. That's also up 17% from EUR 6.5 billion in the previous year. The EBITDA was up 19% to EUR 649 million, up from 547 million. The net income increased even more by 25% to EUR 403 million. We could increase the net liquidity by another EUR 300 million over the year to now a very good number of almost EUR 1 billion. That's up 40%.
We are happy that for the good year, we will have the shareholders participate in the good results and propose to the general assembly a dividend per share of EUR 2.10, which is up 27%. We have committed to a non-financial targets as well to the in the ESG program. We have set ourselves targets for we want to reach for 2025, and that's about reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, reduction of water consumption, reduction of waste. I think we are all well on track on these, on these figures. For us, the most relevant figure for driving also the business in ANDRITZ for sure is the share of what we call the green products.
We want to make every second EUR of turnover, we want to make through these products. That's the target for 2025. We are year to date, 2022, we are at 45%, so another 5% to go. However, that is really going well. I'm happy to tell you that especially the share of these green products play a major role in the growth we are showing, and that makes us quite positive for the future that this trend into the rebuild of the economy into more sustainable solutions will demand more innovations from us and will be a good support for our business.
In line with these targets, we have made two important acquisitions in 2022. We also did two, which I did not focus on. The one is Đuro Đaković , is a manufacturer of high quality pressure parts and of grate solutions. They are located in Croatia, in Slavonski Brod . We are very happy that we could finalize that deal. We acquired the Sovema Group from Italy, a leading technology provider to build battery plants. They have a long history for that. Combined with our capabilities from Schuler, to deliver manufacturing capacities to the automotive industry, we believe that we can become a very relevant supplier for the Gigafactories, for the batteries, for the electro mobility.
That's, I would say, two very, very important steps. I'm also. That's a slide I like very much. This is the share of direct labor hours or manufacturing hours that we have in the developed world compared to the emerging markets. For 2022, for the first time, we could state that we have more manufacturing hours, more direct labor hours in the emerging markets than in the, what we call the developed world, which gives a solid foundation to maintain and even increase our competitiveness for the worldwide business.
If we look a bit further into the figures, the record order intake, I think that's a very good news for you and it's a perfect news for me, that the growth in the order intake was supported by all four business areas. We had a by far the highest Hydro, they jumped up by 25% from last year, to almost EUR 2 billion. That's very close to their peak number. That is very good, we see some further potential there. In Pulp & Paper, we had been up 16%, in Metals 13%, in Separation it was 21%.
In Metals, it is particularly well-received that after the restructuring of Schuler, our cost position is very good. We regained competitiveness in a substantial way, and that really reflects on the market because we could pick up many orders, very important orders, that gives us a good future. Also, the revenue growth, the strong revenue growth by 17% is supported by all areas. Here, Metals and Pulp & Paper are leading with 19%, respectively 17%, but also Hydro, Separation are quite strong behind. And I can tell you the majority of this, in average 17%, more than 10%, comes from organic growth, only a little is related to currency effects or inflation.
You can see on the right side that we maintained the split of between capital and service, which gives a solid balance also for our profitabilities. The growth of service is one of our main strategy over the past years. It will be very relevant for us for the next years. Over the past five years, we had an compound annual growth rate of 9%, and it's now almost EUR 3 billion. We can further grow. We want to grow further. Our customers are also slimming up their organizations and they rely on very fast, very reliable and high competent service, which we are building up for all business areas.
The total backlog almost is almost reached EUR 10 billion, which is a record high and gives us a solid workload for this year and also is a strong basis that we are quite confident that we can increase earnings as well as revenue during the current year. Of course, 20, 75% of the backlog relates to Pulp & Paper and to Hydro. These are the large orders that usually take two to three v years to execute, sometimes in Hydro even more. The earnings on the all four business areas have been quite high. If you look at reported EBITDA margins, we are up from 8.5%-8.6% EBITDA margin.
If you look to adjusted by singular effects, it remains the same at 8.5%. We believe that is a very good number. If we look to the profitability by business area, you can see some differences. Except Pulp & Paper, all business areas reported increase in profitability. In Metals, by 1 percentage point from 2.8% to 3.8%. If you look to the adjusted, it's even 2 percentage points from 1.9% to 3.7%, which is a excellent development. In Hydro, we could increase from 7.1% to 7.5%. The adjusted EBITDA dropped a bit to 7.0%.
In Separation, which was for many years, I would say a difficult area for us to get it to high profitability, a very nicely increased from 9.8%-10.6%. In Pulp & Paper, we dropped from 11.3% to 10.8%, and that was mainly the impact of the price explosion that we could see during the middle of last year, when the war broke out and the material prices soared. You know that we booked large orders for Pulp & Paper as well in the end of 2021 and in 2022. These orders usually are on a fixed-price basis.
We did not expect that impact on the inflation and on the material prices. This is why we could increase the profits very nice, but we could not increase the profitability in the Pulp & Paper, but we believe this is now behind, and we can continue to grow here as well. I give now the word to Norbert, who will lead us through the details of the financials.
Yeah. Thank you, Joachim. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning also from my side. Today, it's a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to present to you the 2022 financials for the group, covering P&L down to net income in the detail and covering cash flow and the liquidity numbers of the current year. This is a chart which you know from former presentations. It starts at the left side with the EBITDA increase of more than EUR 100 million, very favorable development. The depreciation also as still on the level as we had it last year. Have a slight increase, more or less due to some minor housekeeping measures, which we had to do to adjust the assets for those things which are not intensively used anymore.
As I said, it's more or less a housekeeping measure. Leads then to the EBITDA of 8.6%, as Joachim explained already, EUR 648 million, 1 00 million more than last year. The next steps down to the net income is the IFRS 3 amortisation, which is also on the usual level, which you know from us already. It's mostly the Xerium and the Schuler adjustments, those from the big acquisitions from the past. Also here, another housekeeping measure, the write-down of the goodwill for the Compact Hydro business.
You know from former meetings that we can restructure this business a little bit and concentrate there on the profitable part of the business, which then at the end led us to the fact that we will depreciate the goodwill there and have this EUR 10 million impact on our P&L from that. It's not a big number, so in total, it doesn't hurt at the moment. Leads to the EBIT number of 572. 7.6% is a 0.2 digit percent higher than last year. In the financial results, you see again an improvement by nearly EUR 10 million compared to last year. It's simply an effect out of the changed interest situation, especially the interest on our financial assets and investments in Brazil and in North America got better interest.
For that reason, we were able to improve our financial results by about EUR 10 million. This leads to the EBT of 7.2%. In this year, we also improved the tax rate from 26.8% in the last year to 25.6% in the current year. This in the end leads to this record net income of EUR 403 million, which with 5.3% is now in the target range, which we have commuted to the markets in the early 2020 when we informed you in the capital market day about our financial targets. We are now there, above 5%. As Joachim explained to you already, the basis for staying there is good.
Our expectations is that we also can in the next calls give the same positive messages back to you. Starting with this EUR 403, again, if you add the OCI of EUR 40 million, this leads to EUR 443 total results. This then is the basis for record high equity of EUR 1.8 billion and a equity ratio of 21.6% or the goodwill adjusted equity ratio of 13.6% in 2022. We are now back to the level where you knew ANDRITZ to be in the years before the crisis in the Metals business and before the crisis in the economy out from the COVID period.
Back to above 13% and the target is certainly further to increase it to something above 14%. All right, that's about the equity, and then we come in detail to the cash flow. I will speed up here a little bit because it's also compared to the last meetings, we had nothing really new. Starting with the EUR 403 million net income, adjusting all the non-cash relevant elements and then, let's say adding the net working capital development of the current year, which is also very favorable with a decrease in working capital of EUR 150 million, and out of that, an increase in cash of EUR 150 million and deducting the income tax paid.
It leads to a operating cash flow of EUR 710 million, which is a number which ANDRITZ also, as far as I remember, never saw. Very high cash conversion due to this favorable development in the net working capital. Is the basis also for the cash flow of EUR 710 million. This EUR 710 million of cash flow deducted by the investments which we did, also the acquisitions of more than EUR 60 million in the current year and the dividend of the last year leads to the net liquidity of nearly EUR 1 billion, so an increase of nearly EUR 300 million.
Knowing that in this cash development and liquidity development, we have total CapEx of the last years of more than EUR 700 million, which we have spent for future growth and for maintaining our production facilities between 2018 and 2022. Also the aggregate dividend payments of more than EUR 600 million in the last years. This all was digested in these numbers. Now with the EUR 1 billion, is a perfect basis for further growth and for further flexibility in the sense of acquisitions and in the sense of, let's say, investing into growth fields. That's it from the financial part. You see in your papers and in the things which we distributed now this summary page with all the financial numbers.
I don't wanna repeat everything, I just wanna bring your attention to the very right column. I for my person never have seen a report where you have all numbers with double-digit growth. it's really a pleasure to present you this kind of performance of the last year. we are really proud on what we achieved and what our people managed to achieve because this is all the result of these 29,000 people which worked for ANDRITZ in a very, very demanding year. That's the good news. The next good news is what Joachim already presented to you and to the markets based on this very favorable development on our good equity position and on our very good liquidity position.
We are able to pay EUR 2.10 as a dividend this year. This is clearly in our target range of being above 50% payout of our results. A little bit increase compared to last year, and a significant increase in the absolute amount of the dividends. Yeah, that's it from my point of view, and I'm happy to pass back to Joachim.
Thank you very much, Norbert. Excellent figures. If we have a closer look, just very quickly, to the four business areas. Pulp & Paper, I would say record numbers for order intake, revenue and EBITDA. We already discussed the EBITDA margin, which we explained to you. We had a good run on the market. We picked up several important orders for new pulp mills in Europe and in Asia. We had a, I would say, a breakthrough for the pulp industry with the startup of the largest dissolving pulp mill in the world, which we started up for a customer in Brazil. This was in the middle of last year.
It went extremely well, after the third day, we already produced 100% prime quality. We are happy on that. That was a new technology in that scale, I would say it's a milestone. It's a milestone in the industry. What we are very happy about is that the paper and the tissue business really contributed significantly to this growth. We could pick up several very important orders for paper and tissue in Europe and in Americas. We believe that we are on a very good path there. If we look to Metals, I already told you that we consider the turnaround Schuler successfully done. We significantly lowered our cost base.
The market appreciated that together with the solid products we have and cost competitive position. We could see a real unexpected increase in order intake. Now we have beaten the EUR 2 billion in total. There are important orders with respect to e-mobility, and that is as well for cars itself, but also for batteries. Two very important growth areas for us. We had an extremely good market in the U.S. and that looks like to continue, and that's true both for the Schuler business as well as the Metals processing. We see also a strong trend of investments in the stainless steel area, which has been very low in investments over the past six, seven years.
We are very successful regaining our strong market position there. In Hydro, our record business area and order intake, they increased order intake by 25% to a very strong almost EUR 2 billion. These are large orders for pumped storage, for regular hydropower, but also significant amount of modernizations and rehabilitations of existing power plants. Comes from the Americas, from Asia, a bit also from Europe, but not to the extent that is probably necessary to really drive the change of the energy systems in Europe to a sustainable, to a sustainable mode. Therefore, we believe there is more to come and we are quite positive on the further development of that market.
In Separation, which has long been an area of sorrow for you because we could not really get it up and running. We are very happy that we can report to you not only high, very high profitability, now with 10.6% already very close to Pulp & Paper. We see a good opportunity. We have many innovative products. We see a good reception on the market for them. We see further growth there. We also expect a further growth in profitability. Let me summarize to the outlook. When we compare with our roadmap that we presented to you in the last capital market day, I would say we are well on track.
The business volume is, I would say, clearly in the range we promised to you with EUR 7.5 billion sales last year. The EBITDA margin at solid 8.6%. Net income increased to 5.3%. I think we had a good run last year with our M&A activities. Two of them I just presented to you. We are well on our way to reach the ESG targets. I believe that's it from my side. Now it's, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have. Oh, sorry. This was the market outlook. That's probably the most important for you. Please apologize for that. We see a continued good market activity in all business areas across the regions.
We are monitoring the challenges, in particular the inflation, but also anything on the sanctions to Russia and any other countries very, very closely. The guidance for 2023 is that we expect to continue our profitable growth and we anticipate an increase in earnings as well as in revenue compared to 2022. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for your presentation. We are now ready to move on to the Q&A session. To ask questions, please follow the guidelines you can see now on your screen. One moment for the first question. The first question comes from Sven Weier, UBS. Please go ahead, your line is now open.
The next question comes from Sven Weier from UBS. Please go ahead.
I hope you can hear me.
Very well.
Yeah. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one, if I may, is referring to the Q4 order intake, which for the first time in a few quarters has been below EUR 2 billion. On the other hand, we could see you announcing a EUR 500 million Hydro project in December for Q1. Is it fair to assume that this order could have also been easily booked in Q4, signaling to us that the underlying markets development is basically unchanged? Is that fair to say?
No, that's unfortunately not fair. If we could have booked it, we would have. You can be sure about that. We don't see any obstacle for the project to go ahead. But we have a rule about booking orders, yeah. We need to have firm commitments, and we have to have money in our accounts in order to make sure that we do not agree to rebook it. That's the.. We are positive about that project. On the Q4 order intake, it's below EUR 2 billion, you are right. We would've been happy to have it above EUR 2 billion, be sure. On the other side, without a major order, it shows a good solid base performance of, in all business areas.
I think it'd be in the press release, you say you had an excellent start also, into the year. Is that referring to all business divisions, or did you refer that to this big order? How should we see that statement?
It's across, it's, actually, it's across all divisions. It's very good in Pulp & Paper. We assume it will be good in Hydro, and Metals and Separation also quite good market, yeah.
On the Paracel project, are you still confident to book that in here, or is there any update on this one?
Yeah. It is not included in any of the numbers yet. We do not anticipate to book it in the first quarter. No update there. We are ready.
If I may, regarding the backlog that you reported, you have round about an EUR 1.8 billion increase year-over-year there. How much of that EUR 1.8 billion increase is due for delivery in 2023?
Norbert, you need to calculate very quickly.
It's about 60%. This is a huge increase from capital orders, which usually have two years processing time, and where most of the value added is then distributed over two years. It's about 60%, which we, out of this increase we'll have in the first year.
Okay, thank you. That means that the increase in revenues that we should see this year is going to be rather significant.
We will increase our revenues in 2023 as we have announced it. Most of the revenues which we see and which we have budgeted is supported by backlog and by this huge order backlog which we communicated to you. We are very confident that the sales increase will happen as long as no major disruptions will occur. This is not in our hands. If everything works well and goes continuous, we are confident.
Last question from my side, if I may, just on the earnings outlook. In the press release, you say on the one side you wanna increase earnings. You also mentioned profitability increase. I mean, should we assume that the very good margin at around 8.5% should be at least stable, or how should we connect all the dots of what you said also in the press release there?
We are cautiously optimistic on that. We believe looking at last year, where we had a, I would say, significant external challenges, we managed first to deliver a rather growth in order intake and revenues, and could keep the profitability stable despite the inflationary pressure. We expect now we are much better prepared for that we are optimistic to improve there.
Okay. That's it from my side. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Ingo Schachel , BNP Paribas Exane. Your line is now open.
The next question comes from Ingo Schachel from BNP Paribas Exane. Please go ahead.
My question, and, the first one would be on the dissolving pulp opportunity, as you mentioned that your big greenfield project in dissolving pulp has started up very quickly and nicely. I think the other one that was on the market has also started up successfully. I was wondering whether this now successful track record could be a catalyst for dissolving pulp players to accelerate investments, now that this is sort of proven and feasible. Do you rather think it would take a bit more time for the market to digest the capacity additions in dissolving pulp, and we might see, let's say no bigger greenfields and maybe just a few small conversions in this area?
Yeah. We see, if you look at the market gurus from RISI and other and AFRY, they all predict significantly growth in the on the dissolving pulp area. You know, the dissolving pulp market works a bit differently compared to the market pulp and kraft pulp, as most of the of the huge consumers are vertically integrated. Probably the pace is a bit lower, but we see a significant potential for dissolving pulp as cellulosic-based fibers will definitely move much more into textile in the years to come. We see a good supporting trend there, and we believe that with this new continuous technology that we have started up last year in Brazil, we are in an excellent position to participate from that trend.
Okay. thank you. Maybe on Pulp & Paper margins, I think the way you explained the profitability in 2022, of course, you were pointing to supply chain bottlenecks, input cost inflation, that has burdened margins in 2022. If I read your statements correctly, it sounds as if you regard the margin level in 2021, i.e., 11% plus as more normal and possibly already achievable in 2023 if input costs and supply chain bottlenecks ease, or do you still have too much legacy fixed price backlog?
I would say from the inflations and the cost increases, we know we have taken care of in the closing of the last year. We don't know what is coming. I would say also the prospects giving on inflation are quite different and changing on a weekly basis. I would say we would be cautious, but at the moment the material market and the material costs are quite stable and also rather dropping. We have learned our lesson last year not to celebrate too early.
Okay. Very clear. Thanks very much.
Thank you. The next question comes from Daniel Lion on Erste Group .
The next question comes from Daniel Lion from Erste Group . Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking me on as well. I would like to focus a little bit on the Hydro business and the water levels, especially in Europe and the U.S. There's a lot of negative news on the water levels. I was actually interested to hear if this trend that we are seeing, which is expected to last somewhat, if this is reflected already in your negotiations with Hydro operators, and if, to what extent?
That is, I would say that is more related to the profitability of the projects. It's not driving our discussions in the projects too much. For sure, the low water levels are a concern, fully with you, as the utilization rate is dropping, and then the feasibility of the projects are decreasing. On the other side, you can see in Europe, the prices for renewable energy are so high that it's also very attractive.
We'd rather see that our customers, they are tempted to run their plants, as much as they can, and not to stop them for rehabilitation modes because the incoming revenues are so good because the prices are so high. For sure, the low water level are a concern and need to be taken into consideration, also for the projects, how they are done.
Actually, I see it actually both ways. On the one hand, of course, it's a general concern for the medium term, at least. In the short term, I could also imagine that the, you know, the sediments are getting more of an issue with low water levels, right? This would be actually also a business case for renewing or moving into new generation turbines in order to better deal with these sediments.
I would say on the technical side, the sediment topic is under control. There is whatever whatever is, and this very much depends on the geological formation at the site, as well as the drought that you have there. I'd rather see that we have to take into consideration the water levels and the realities and if we're going to plan new sites. We understand, and I believe more and more people understand, if we want to move into renewable energy, there is no renewable energy grid without hydropower because wind and solar cannot deliver a stable grid. We need hydropower, at least we need pumped storage. And that is, I would say, this development is in process.
We, of course, can buffer it, also with fossil fuel-powered power plants or nuclear plants. If we want to move into a truly a renewable, hydropower is a must. I promise you, we are, we can deliver the innovations that are needed also to cope with sediments, and also with low, with low water levels.
Yeah. Clear. Can you maybe also provide an update in this respect on the battery storage projects out of your cooperation with I think it was Daimler?
No, we don't have a cooperation, and our customers for the battery plants are very shy to announce their commitment. I cannot further elaborate, except that it is already last year in the order intake played a significant role. The market, you know, is quite good. Many projects are announced.
Yeah, yeah. Sure. Also maybe coming back to the Paracel project, just to see if I got it correctly. Everything's on track, you wouldn't like to commit to the second quarter, right?
Yeah. We are, you know, we are committed. The customer needs to commit.
Yeah, yeah. Sure.
You need to talk to your colleagues in the banks because the, What is on the bottleneck is the financing.
Yes.
That's. We are committed, and I think that's very important also for Paracel that they have a partner there who is ready, who can deliver, yeah, and who has the team available.
May I add here, Mark.
Yeah.
Saying, what is going on in the banking world, it's not a kind of a, it's a process which is going on there. As always, processes in these dimensions take time. At the moment, we don't have any concerns that the banking world will get these managed. The question is only timing of this whole exercise.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Understood. Then one word also to your dividend policy. A few years back, there was actually a slight change in the policy to move towards 55%-60% payout ratio. Currently, we are at 50%, round about 50%, which is more or less also been like, targeted in the past years. Is there still the wish or the trends to move up the payout ratio in the coming years?
We, I think we have communicated we would like to stay in the, in the 50%-60%, and this is what we definitely commit to.
Okay. One word please to the expected personal cost inflation for 2023. What would you expect here? I understand that you have reflected this already in your prices, right?
That's-
How much?
Yeah. We have in the major markets, we have a union increases negotiated between 5% and 8%-10%. I would say it's a bit of an average inflation rate. Also, it's quite different from different markets. I would say if you say with that we are estimating 7%-8% on the personal side, I think that's a fair assumption.
This is already reflected in your prices, right?
That's, that is, yeah.
Yeah. Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Peter Rothenaicher , Baader Bank AG. Your line is now open.
The next question comes from Peter Rothenaiche r from Baader Bank AG. Please go ahead.
Hello, gentlemen. Firstly, on metal processing. In the past years, you had always problems in the execution, had some, you know, value corrections in here. Is this now over here now? Do you see here confidence for the upcoming years?
Yeah. We still have two of these critical projects in our backlog. They significantly hit our earnings in last year. We believe we have both of them on the finish line, very close to start up and so we definitely are positive that we will leave that behind. The new order intake is on a much more healthy level in terms of margin. We have improved our internal processes to make a more extended risk review beforehand. We also implemented the policy that we need to have a ready defined execution team available before we are taking an order. That's particularly important as now the order intake is increasing, and we don't want to run into the same problem again. I would say, yes, it's done, and it, we hope that we can prove it to you through the numbers, we will deliver this year.
Okay. You mentioned the good start in terms of demand and at order intake into 2023. We had already record order intake in the last year. We have two big projects on the Hydro and Paracel side coming in. Is it fair to assume that you see a good chance to repeat at least this order intake level in the current year?
We hope for that, but we don't know. We don't give guidance on order intake. As you know, this is driven by the large orders, and this is not in our hand.
Okay.
It's, I would say if customers decide, I would say we are well-positioned.
Okay. With regard to the Pulp & Paper margin, I did understand it correctly, that despite the fact, that you have a stronger share of capital business in the current year, you're confident, to improve, the margin level, versus 2022?
That's our target.
Regarding M&A, is there something you could already mention that you are confident that we will see in the upcoming months here some news flow? What would be perhaps your target size of acquisitions?
It's, unfortunately, we cannot announce anything. If we could, we would let you know very, very soon. We don't have a particular target size. Norbert reported that we have a good cash position, so we are not limited in size on that side, but it needs to be a good target. We will stay along the strategy we have on acquisitions. Basically along the value chain of our customers, should not buy competitors and should be, should preferably be in the service business or at least in a strong, with a strong exposure to the service business.
Okay. Perhaps some more details on the P&L. The tax rate, which you have seen in last year, is this a sustainable level? What is your expectation here, for 2023?
I didn't understand. The what rate?
Tax rate.
The tax rate. Yeah, the tax rate is a, from my point of view, something which should stay in that range. Maybe with a slight chance to improve. We are on a good position with our balanced profitability structure over the world, and this leads us at the end to these kind of tax rates.
The other aspect, the financial results. I can imagine with the huge net cash position and the current trend in interest rates, there should be a strong improvement in the financial result in the current year.
At least for the interest part. In the financial result, you know well that there are some things which you can't really predict, which depend on currency and which depend on interest rate developments. I don't consider it as a area for sorrow in the next year.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. There is a follow-up question from Sven Weier , UBS. Your line is now open.
The next question comes from Sven Weier from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thanks for taking my follow-up questions. The first one is on the backlog. You had a total reduction sequentially of EUR 850 million and sales were EUR 500 million higher than orders in Q4. There's a gap of just over EUR 300 million. Was just wondering, is that all currency related, or did you also have a cancellation in that?
Yeah, we had to adjust our order backlog also by Russia projects which we are not able anymore to proceed. So this was a correction of about EUR 100 million, which we took out of the order backlog. The rest is currency.
Okay. That was all in Q4 then, yeah?
Yes.
The second follow-up I had is just on the PPA development, the IFRS 3 charge. I mean, how should we see that developing this year and the coming years? Is it still at around EUR 60 million for the time being, or what's your guidance on that, Norbert?
The regular depreciation of Schuler will end this year, and depends on what we acquire. I would not plan here with a major reduction, because certainly when we acquire companies that have a huge engineering part, means, we don't acquire huge asset base and this often leads then to a intangible and to a goodwill. To be fair, I would not predict here that it decreases significantly or it completely deteriorates to zero. We will acquire further on, and this leads to these numbers then.
60 is the right number for this year and the coming years, approximately?
If nothing happens, for 2023, it will get a little bit lower.
Okay. Fair enough. Thank you very much.
When I say nothing happens, I mean if there is no major additional acquisition. This is what I meant. Sorry for explaining. Good. Next one.
Thank you very much. There is another call from the U.K. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
No name.
Okay. Okay, we'll move on with the next call. The next comes from Teresa Schinwald from Raiffeisen Bank International. Your line is now open.
The next question comes from Teresa Schinwald from Raiffeisen Bank International . Please go ahead.
Sorry, I had an interruption. Good morning. I have a few regulatory questions dealing with increased support for renewables. The IRA has already announced the amounts available. The Green Deal Industrial Plan is still in the making. What's your expectation on how much time it will take to translate these additional funds into new orders, especially in the Hydro business, but also in the batteries?
I would say on the Hydro side, it will take a couple of years.
As the processes are slow and a lot of approvals need to be taken, a lot of participation of society will take place. That is rather long. I would say on the battery side, it's probably moving a bit quicker.
long means in excess of five years, and a bit quicker in three?
Bit long means in excess of three years, and quicker, means within a year or two.
Oh, great. Second, on the technology targets, that were also leaked by the European Union. Which part of your business? I mean, obviously, Hydro would count as being part of the self-sufficiency target. Also, your battery business, because this obviously would also receive additional support.
Sorry, I didn't get it. We'll receive additional pro-support from whom?
No, through the minimum self-sufficiency targets that were announced in the EU, like minimum of 40% of own photovoltaic manufacturing. There are also thresholds for battery and other renewable technologies.
We have not. Sorry, but we have not translated this into business for us. I mean, that's more subsidies related to our customers. We rather wait for them to develop projects from there. We cannot really. I would say, I would have a general hope as I'm a positive person. You know that, especially with announcements from Brussels, the devil lies in the details, and you never know when it really materializes into projects.
Great. My last one is regarding pumped storage, which is obviously attractive to store renewable energy and shift the peak production to the peak demand parts of the day. I'm more looking at the economics. What's your estimate on power price or payment for negative energy that your customers would need to make pumped storage an attractive investment?
I would say pumped storage is an extremely attractive investment. Energy production costs are low. We see projects investing into combined wind farms, solar parks, and pumped storage to provide 24/7 renewable energy at a constant rate. We are partnering at the moment with an Indian customer. We are building the first of these types right now. We trust that it will start up next year. We have received a second order because they wanna expand that, and we believe it's a very feasible concept, in particular in the emerging markets, where the grids are usually not that stable as we know it in Central Europe. That is very attractive, and it's highly economical.
It works well without subsidies, and that's, I would say that is a very good true commitment.
Oh, great. Thank you very much.
Welcome.
Thank you very much. As there are any further questions, I would like to thank you for your attention. In case of any further questions, please send me an email or contact me directly. Thank you for your attention, and have a nice day.
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Thank you. Bye-bye.
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